New Strategy Comes Out of COP8

The World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled a new global strategy on October 6 to scale up the tobacco control agenda over the next few years and to “prevent further interference by tobacco industry” in public health policies.

The strategy, called the Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), aims to strengthen implementation of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), with a roadmap to guide the work of the convention parties, the secretariat, and other stakeholders with regards to tobacco control from 2019 to 2025.

The MTSF strategy was concluded during the eighth session of the Conference of Parties (COP8) of the FCTC, which saw over 1,200 participants, including delegations from 148 parties to the global tobacco control treaty and representatives of UN agencies, other intergovernmental organizations and civil society.

COP8 participants also agreed to maximize transparency to protect FCTC related sessions and proceedings from the “intrusion of tobacco industry representatives and interests.”

"More than ever, we need to stay the course and strengthen our commitment to ensure that FCTC efforts to protect and promote public health and sustainable development are not hijacked by the tobacco industry," said Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head the FCTC secretariat. "We must yield no ground to the tobacco industry."

The MTSF strategy requires parties to the treaty to protect national public health policies "from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry."In addition to tighter control actions, the parties also addressed the need for tobacco control efforts to integrate strategies to combat the destructive impacts of tobacco on the environment and sustainable development.